It is still (too) early to establish who won the trade sending Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Gabriel Moreno to the Arizona Diamondbacks, according to the Blue Jays.
However, if we rely on first impressions of this one, the DBacks clearly won.
You don’t have to look far.
First of all, between them, Gurriel Jr. and Moreno had 15 hits in the entire championship series between their team and the Philadelphia Phillies.
For the Blue Jays, that’s 15 hits in their entire series against the Minnesota Twins. The comparison can be far-fetched and the team faced is not the same. Despite everything, this leads us to reflect on the choice made by Toronto’s senior management.
If the Jays wanted to change avenues and try to go with another approach for their attack in 2023 (filling a left position and left-handed hitter), the recipe did not work as well as hoped.
Coldly, an exchange of Daulton Varsho for Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (even if he is at the end of his contract) could be reasonable. The addition of Moreno hurts. I understand that the Blue Jays had a surplus of catchers and that Varsho is a player with more than interesting versatility.
But, this may not be the expected impact.
Jays fans will probably have to take some time to digest this transaction.
Personally, I wanted to give the runner a chance. However, I believe that time will prove the DBacks right.
Plus, if Moreno or Gurriel Jr. had to hit the game-winning hit in a Game 7 World Series, it would be very painful.
Let’s still rejoice at their presence in the World Series: they didn’t steal it.
